Monterey Bay Keeps Playoff Hopes Alive with Fiery Win in Phoenix

October 5, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Monterey Bay FC News Release

PHOENIX, Arizona – Monterey Bay F.C. (8-14-9, 33 points) earned its first win in the Jordan Stewart era with a 2-1 victory over Phoenix Rising FC (9-11-9, 36 points) at Rising Stadium, against the club for which Stewart played the final season of his playing career. Mobi Fehr ended the Club’s scoring drought with a right-footed strike and Carlos Guzmán played a role in the Union’s second score of the night to push Monterey Bay over the top and keep its playoff hopes alive with three matches left to play.

Both sides spent the first quarter hour of the match feeling things out, but it was Monterey Bay who would strike first. In the 15th minute with the Crisp-and-Kelp on the attack, Christian Volesky laid the ball off to Walmer Martínez, who scanned the landscape before looping the ball towards Morey Doner just above the box on the right side. With his first touch, Doner tapped it to Fehr, who let it fly from the top of the half circle. The ball took a deflection on its way in and beat the goalkeeper to his left as it was buried into the back of the net to officially end the Union’s scoring drought at 557 minutes. A few minutes later, Fehr had another opportunity at goal from above the box, this time on the left side, but his curling shot just missed the top-right corner. In the 39th minute, Phoenix looked likely to score when a botched clearance saw the ball fall perfectly to Tomas Angel inside the box, but his left-footed strike was saved by Carlos Herrera. Then just before the half in the 44th minute, a corner kick for Monterey Bay resulted in Guzmán looping a ball back into the box, but the ball instead went untouched, bounced up high, and slipped through the goalkeeper’s hands just under the crossbar on its way down to double the lead for the Crisp-and-Kelp at the halftime break.

Eight minutes into the second half, Angel fired a left-footed shot from distance, but Herrera dove across the goal to deny the chance at the left post and keep the match at 2-0. In the 67th minute, Doner placed a perfect cross at the far post for Volesky, but he was unable to direct his header on frame with a defender draped all over him and the chance was missed. Laurence Wyke had a chance inside the box for the hosts in the 72nd minute, but a right-footed shot was saved again by Herrera for his fifth save of the night. Phoenix Rising FC eventually pulled one back in the 84th minute with a…